I would make friends with your local nursery, take photos of the house with you and simply be honest with them. Tell them you are an very happy new home owner, overwhelmed, don't know anything about gardening/landscaping but you really could use some help to come up with a 3/5 year landscaping plan. A lot of nursery owners will come to your house free as long as you purchase a plant or two. (huge help) Start with a tree in between garage windows. Plant it at least 5 feet from house. (make it an anniversary gift so it starts memories/roots for the two of you) Plant other trees or more expensive special plants on important dates as they come, children, promotions, birthdays... Definitely go slow, but you will be amazed at how far a couple hundred dollars can go. Hang some plants on the porch it will fill in and soften the porch area. Don't forget winter color too, like red twig dogwoods, willows, --- Lastly, paint that front door a fun color that you love! ;-) Enjoy & Good luck!!

Patricia Colwell Consulting, Thanks for responding and for your ideas. You didn't say why you wouldn't pair taupe with beachy colors. Is there a specific reason you think taupe doesn't work? Not being a pro, I'd be very interested to know and to know why I should go with a greenish gray, especially since green is a color I don't care for in large quantities (such as on walls). If it helps, I've attached two photos. The first is our previous home with the furniture and decor we'll be re-using in our new home. In this previous home, the walls were Sherwin Williams Sand Dollar (a slightly pinkish taupe). I chose those colors based on the second photo below which was the inspiration photo I used in picking the colors. As you can see, it has taupe walls and floor tile in the main area, aqua walls in the foyer, and the furniture and rugs are in blues, aquas, creams and whites, with some other colors in smaller decor pieces. As I said, I'd love to understand why you think taupe is a bad choice, and I'd love to hear from others in regard to these color choices, as well. Thanks!

Your home is very nice but the problem you're having deciding what route to go is that your home is a mishmash of different styles. The roof screams coastal south yet the brick yells colonial. Add the shutters (colonial) and the Roman pillars (colonial) and it amounts to a split personality. The first thing I would suggest is getting rid of the fake shutters. Unless shutters actually have a purpose it's better to ditch them. The columns are a little more problematic because to change them will incur significant costs. I would go with a simple square column for their chameleon-like properties. But make sure the dimensions work in relations to the size of the home. As much as I am an avid gardener I agree that the shrubbery at the house perimeter needs to go. It overwhelms the home and makes it appear much more squat than it actually is. I don't have a problem with the other greenery, though. I have no experience painting brick in such an environment. Bricks helps release humidity in a building. In Canada where I live, painting brick can be problematic. The continual effect of moisture trapped in the brick can deteriorate it over time. While I live in the north I have a place in south Florida. Most painted homes I see are stucco which lends itself to paint. Paint would be an easy and cheaper fix in the short term, but I believe it would require constant attention and over time the costs could multiply. I think your dissatisfaction in your home's appearance is less because of the brickwork but because of the stark contrast of a very light roof against dark facade. Try painting your front door a different color (the red just accentuates the colonial vibe) that works with the brick and the roof before making the leap to painting the whole house. I suggest SW's Sea Serpent. Paint the columns (not the door color) as well but a muted shade like SW's White Flour to get an idea of what your home could look like without going all in on the facade. I noticed you used an app for a combo of house paint and shutter colors complimented with blue and white greenery. As an expert gardener, I have to say my experience with blue and white florals paired with rich dark greenery , which are absolutely sensational, really only work in environments that enjoy a lot of shade. It's the shade aspect of the colorations that makes the pairings so luminous. In a sun drenched environment like south Florida they look washed out. My final suggestion if cost is not an issue would be to hire someone, after investigating the effect of paint on brick, to stucco your home's exterior. No better time after pulling out the foundation plantings.

Thank you for your ideas, Kendrah and Maureen. Kendrah, the current colors ARE really nice together—but they’re not “right” for us. Hopefully, the ones we end up choosing will be as graceful together. Maureen, I love the pictures you posted and the look of hinged shutters that can actually close, but we don’t have enough wall space on our porch to have that kind on the four front porch windows (or around our door) because of the sconces and doorbell. We took down the shutters that were on the ground floor because we thought they were too skimpy (and, unfortunately, can’t be any larger). We could have larger shutters made for our three upstairs windows (which would include the one over the garage)—but not for the front porch windows.